Scheduling 101 - Deep Dive #2

In continuing our Deep Dive from Scheduling 101, we are going to walk through the group of questions regarding the meeting attendees. Making sure the right attendees are on the meeting saves you headaches and the churn or chaos of last minute additions.

"Are the attendees related to the topic of the meeting?"

The topic of the meeting will help you know if the right attendees are on the meeting. If the topic is an internal meeting, you would not expect an external presence or customer on the call. If the meeting topic is too vague to know who the attendees should be, ask the requester for more information about the topic of the meeting.

Example 1a:

The meeting is to discuss a slip in the launch schedule due to an engineering delay. The key attendees must include the following: 1/ your exec (of course); 2/ the product manager; and 3/ the engineering leader. But in addition, the meeting may need: product marketing to know the date is slipping, sales to know the product is delayed, and finance if we need resources to resolve the slip.

Example 1b:

The meeting is to review a proposal of a new product. The key attendees must include the following: 1/ your exec (of course); 2/ the person proposing the new product; 3/ the product leader; and 4/ finance. But in addition, the meeting may need: engineering leader to vet the feasibility, legal for legal awareness, and marketing for messaging.

"Is someone missing?"

As you become more familiar with your team and their projects, you will notice if there are attendees being omitted or missed.

Example 2a:

If the topic says "engineering" and there are no engineers on the attendee list, that's a red flag. Example 2b:

If the topic is "review with marketing" and your executive's marketing counterpart isn't on the attendee list, that's a red flag.

"Are there too many people being requested?"

You know how they tell you not to bring too many people to shopping for important items (houses, wedding dresses, cars, etc.) That's because the more people in the room the harder it is to make a decision or get consensus. Too many opinions.

The same is true for work meetings. Too many participants - not only means its harder to get time on everyone's calendar but also harder for the meeting to be productive. My rule of thumb is no more than 10 attendees (not including a note taker - if the note taker is just an auditor).

If there is more than 10 attendees, it becomes an information sharing or more brainstorming session with no actual decision made.

When I receive a request with more than 10 attendees, I ask the meeting requester to either cut the list down to 10 attendees or list out who they really need and why.

Note: This a good guide and there are some meetings that are strategic in nature that will be exceptions to this rule.

"Are all stakeholders on the project requested?"

Lastly, no one likes to be left out of meetings where they are a key stakeholder. If the project manager is requesting time to speak about the project with your executive without their key stakeholders, and it is not a one-on-one, that would be a red flag. Its important that stakeholders are on the same page about decisions or solutions to blockers.

So if you know a key stakeholder is not on the request, ask why they aren't being included? It could be as simple as they forgot, or the stakeholder is already aligned. But always a good thing to double-check.

Let's dig into the other questions in more depth.

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